Alcohol Addiction Causes

Alcohol Addiction
Causes

Why is it that allows one person to be able to drink, even
drink heavily, yet they will never become an alcoholic? But another person merely tries alcohol and
almost immediately they develop the disease of alcoholism and struggle to rid
themselves of the monkey on their back.
The topic of alcohol addiction causes will either be food for a good
conversation or the beginning of a rather heated argument, depending on what
side of the fence you’re sitting on.

A disease of the
brain

For starters,
alcoholism is a brain disease. If a
person never takes a drink, the brain’s reaction to alcohol never takes place.
Therefore, one could argue that the main cause of alcoholism is drinking. But it really isn’t that simple. One person drinks without developing the
disease, while another gets sick.
Something “clicks” in the brain.
Alcoholics will often tell you they experienced that “click” when the
alcohol hit its target inside their brain.
There are some factors to this, so let’s take a cursory look and four of
them – genetic, social, psychological and environmental.

We are all a
product of our parents, mom and dad. If
mom and dad had the disease it is logical to assume that you are predisposed to
alcohol addiction as well. It’s not
etched in stone, but it’s a good indicator.
Chronic diseases run in families.
If you father had a heart attack, you would probably be considered “at
rick” for some kind of cardiac event yourself.
Whatever was going on inside mom or dad’s brain that caused them to
either drink heavily or develop alcoholism, you are probably going to have the
same reaction to the drug.

Everyone does it!

Social aspects of
the disease are important to understand.
Many high school students cave into peer pressure and attend beer
parties, or “take a swig” when the bottle is passed around. They want to have a good time with the crowd
and they want to fit in. Commonly people
will gather for drinks after work, or you’ve no doubt heard about executive
types having a two-martini lunch.

Of course, even for well-educated professional people, the
lure of being accepted might mean having that scotch with the boss to feel
accepted, or to “look the part.” Go to
any sporting event and people are tailgating, and that always means beer and
liquor. Drinking is a part of the
American culture. It’s everywhere. Exposure is one of the common alcohol addiction causes.

I’m sad and anxious and when I drink I feel better

Sadly, there are
psychological factors and alcohol addiction causes include the person’s
perceived need to “self medicate.” This is also one of the key alcohol addiction causes. Away
from friends and colleagues, away from the social gatherings and sporting
events, people drink alone, not for recreation, not to relax and have fun, but
to feel better. We talked about the
“click” and many people just liked the way they felt when they had that first
drink. People suffering from depression
or low self esteem may be more likely to develop a drinking problem.

Both parents drink
kids likely to drink

Environmental factors have to be considered. Let’s take the case of a young person who
lives with two parents who drink, but are not alcoholics. They use alcohol routinely, but neither has
developed any kind of psychological or physical dependence. The young person is present and knows that
mom and dad always have liquor in the house.
That would be an environmental factor.

A person who is around the drug does not necessarily
automatically become an addict, but they are around it and that increases the
danger. Another example of an
environmental factor is in the case of a recovering alcoholic, who needs to
avoid drinking, yet always finds him/her self in a situation where alcohol is
present. One main of the alcohol addiction causes is access, if you are around alcohol all of the time you are much more likely to become alcoholic. Granted, that may be a more
social factor, but access to the drug is an important cause factor that must be
considered.

If a person has come out of a treatment facility, is going
to meetings and trying to cooperate with a carefully designed recovery program,
going back to the same old haunts and seeing the old gang isn’t going to help.
They really do need to get in a different environment.

Develops over time

Whatever the alcohol addiction causes, alcoholism usually develops over time.
Brain chemistry is affected, as the pleasure censors in the brain are
stimulated and people enjoy to relaxation and feel less inhibited. Alcohol will impair judgment, reflexes and
will cause mood changes. There are happy
drunks and mean drunks.

Everyone is different.
Over time a person wants to repeat the experience. They drink more often
and they drink more. The type of alcohol
doesn’t matter. People get drunk on beer
as easily as they get drunk on whiskey.
They sometimes reach a point where the alcohol takes over and they can
no longer control their drinking. But straight Vodka is often the preference of alcoholics because it seems to be more odorless.

One drink too much
the entire ocean not enough

The late Rev.
Dwayne Olson, who was the inspiration for this web site, said it this way:

“One
drink is too much and all of Lake Michigan is
not enough.”

Studies show that one/two
drinks per day for the average person (15 per week for men, 12 per week for
women) is within safe limits. It follows that going beyond that limit can
produce problems. The probability is that one in nine will develop the disease.

What determines
alcohol addiction? We turn to the DSM 5 Criteria for Substance Dependence
for a closer look. Three or more of the following must be present in order for
an individual to be diagnosed with alcoholism:

Tolerance

Withdrawal

Substance
taken for a longer time and in greater amounts than intended

Desire
or efforts to reduce or control use

Much
time spent trying to obtain substance

Social,
recreational or occupational activities given up or reduced

Continued
use despite knowing problems caused by substance

May be a heavy
drinker but not addicted to alcohol

To understand the nature of the disease, we first must try
to identify the criteria necessary for the disease to be present. Dr. Carlton
Erickson of the University of Texas, explained to a large group of counselors
that some people, no matter how much they drink, will not become alcoholics,
because the criteria as outlined above and in DSM is not evident. They don't develop a tolerance, or go into withdrawal or need greater amounts for the same effect.

Alcoholics feel that
they CAN’T QUIT!

Alcohol addiction
causes depend on the individual. While alcohol addiction can be predicted, even
with some accuracy, it’s not automatic.
Unlike other chronic diseases, alcohol addiction causes boil down to one
major cause—a person takes a drink. Once
the disease takes hold and progresses, even of the person hates drinking and
wants to quit, it won’t be enough. Treatment is the only option for those who
have been afflicted.

A Few More Truths
About Alcohol Addiction Causes and Myths

The problem with
truth is you rarely hear it, especially when untruth is being shouted and
repeated. That’s sort of the way it is
with alcohol in this country. What we
know is vastly overshadowed by what we don’t know. Some of our supposed “knowledge” is nothing
more than myth, but never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.

Alcohol is by
far the most abused drug. It’s perfectly
legal for those of legal age. It’s
available everywhere, round-the-clock, and it’s inexpensive. This is also one of the key alcohol addiction causes. We Americans pride ourselves in our ability
to “hold our liquor” and we tend to deny our intoxicated state, and so we begin
to examine some of the myths and see if there is a shred of truth to them.

Myth 1: Black coffee
will sober you up.

That is his
solution for having a few too many. It
sounds like it could work, but in reality it doesn’t. The only thing that will
sober you up is time. You can drink all
the black coffee you like, but it isn’t going to help, so the adage old “put
him to bed and let him sleep it off” is the remedy that is tried and true.

Depending on the blood alcohol level, one can
actually sleep for a few hours and still be legally drunk when they awaken. Some people think they can take a couple of
aspirin to prevent the ill effects, i.e. hangover, of having one too many.
Well, you can put that one with the black coffee, because aspirin will actually
make somebody drunker and prolong the effects of the alcohol longer. Sorry, nice try.

Myth 2: A little
“hair of the dog” will straighten you right up.

Remedies for
hangovers are plentiful, creative and at times comical. But having a drink in the morning to
straighten you up is an old wives tale and a bad idea. What is partially true is having that drink
could put off the effects of the alcohol, but the hangover is coming as a
result of the blood alcohol level lowering.
Guess what, you’ve added more alcohol, so the hangover could get worse. Again, sleep it off, but if you’re going to
drink anything, let that be water. Keep
hydrated, you’ll feel better. Drinking when you get up is also one of the key alcohol addiction causes.

Myth 3: If you get
pulled over, you can fool a breathalyzer test.

Popping a breath
mint, sucking on copper, or doing anything else isn’t going to work. When the police pull you over, they know what
they are doing and they know all the tricks.
The air they want to test isn’t the air in your mouth anyway. It’s the
air deep in your lungs they want to test.

Myth 4:
You can’t get drunk on beer like you can on liquor.

I love this
one. A 12 ounce beer will have about the
same alcohol content as a mixed drink, given the bartender doesn’t get too
generous on his overflow from the shot glass.
You will get drunk on beer. You
might get full before you’re completely sozzled, but alcohol is alcohol. And no, if you’re an alcoholic, merely
switching to beer isn’t a good idea.Thinking that beer is not alcohol is also one of the key alcohol addiction causes.

Myth 5: Men and women
can drink the same amount if they are the same size.

Men and women
are different. Live with it. Women do not have as much muscle and so they
tend to process more alcohol through their liver than men. They don’t have as much lean body mass, and
their liver is the same size, so the alcohol gets into their bloodstream
faster. Ladies should be wise to avoid
drinking contests, because they will probably lose.

Myth 6: It’s ok to
let my teenager drink at home, when I am there

Of all the
myths, this is the most deadly. Children
and alcohol do not mix. Children who are
introduced to alcohol at a young age are far more likely to develop the disease
of alcoholism than those who wait until they are 21 to have that first
drink. Responsible parents do not allow
their children to drink. So many people
who have that first drink experience “the click” and immediately know that they
like the way they feel when they drink alcohol.

The brain of a teenager is not fully developed, and if the
child is not able to fully think through a situation and understand the
ramifications of his/her actions, it stands to reason that they are in jeopardy
of getting into trouble without even knowing what is happening. Teens believe that they are invincible and they will live
forever, and so the chance of them engaging in risky behavior is far
greater. This is also one of the key alcohol addiction causes; teens and their parents underestimating their vulnerability. The vast majority of alcoholics
and drug addicts began early.

Myth 7: I’m not an
alcoholic; I’m just a problem drinker

No, you’re an
alcoholic. Those who chronically abuse
alcohol have the disease. Some may have
it worse than others, but they have it.
People will deny their disease.
It may be because of shame, or fear that they will be found out and
perhaps fired from their job, but the power of the denial is apparent. Rather than getting treatment for their
disease, they say they just have a few too many.

They say they can handle it and they have everything under
control. Some alcoholics are highly
functional. But as the disease
progresses, and it surely will, they will lose that control and their lives
will become, as the first of the 12 Steps says, unmanageable.

Myth 8: This pill
will cure you of alcoholism

We would all
like to see a cure for alcoholism, drug addiction, diabetes and a host of other
chronic diseases. But there isn’t. There are drugs that make it very unpleasant
to drink, but absent that drug, a person will drink.

The pill might keep you from drinking, but most alcoholics
want to drink, so the solution to that is not taking the pill. You cannot cure
alcoholism, but you can control it through treatment and a good recovery
program. People can live happy, healthy
and productive lives and they don’t need alcohol.

Understanding these myths and alcohol addiction causes can be the first step to preventing the start of this devastating disease.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7:7-8

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